


Gnawings

by Perro (Gadhar)



Series: Ollie/Dinah Drabble Prompts [9]
Category: Green Arrow (Comics)
Genre: Dinah thoughts, F/M, Fluffish, nervous habit, no real plot, prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-10
Updated: 2014-07-10
Packaged: 2018-02-08 06:04:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1929471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gadhar/pseuds/Perro
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Oliver has a nervous habit. </p><p>Yeah that's about it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gnawings

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing. Least of all these two. If I did, there would be _way_ less emotional angst.  
>  Not beta'd.
> 
> Okay so, uh, another prompt thing. I don't remember it or where it came from, but yeah. *flaps hand*  
> Alright, so, apparently 'gnawings' isn't a word. Who knew? And I'm not totally okay with this piece. Something about it is just...not satisfactory. I wrote it a while back, I don't know. Some minor angst slipped in there, just cause.
> 
> Also, I'm not sure if this habit is a thing people actually do, it could some weird thing from my head. 
> 
> Plus, I full-heartedly believe that Dinah- no matter what she's doing, with Ollie or without- completely throws Oliver for a loop. His playboy charms don't work like they usually do, he bounces between having no brain-to-mouth filter and walking on eggshells around her, and is shy about everything. Because she's different and he doesn't know how to handle that. So he flounders and it is adorable. My headcanon, but it's fullblown canon too, if you ask me.

She had notices the marks on his hands, sometimes riding the curve of his wrists and a little higher. They were always small, light red marks that seemed to blink out of existence within a day's time. They weren't always there, and perhaps that's why Dinah never asked. Never asked what they were or how they came to be. 

Or maybe they just weren't that interesting before. 

Earlier, she had found herself staring at them. They were brighter than usual, angrier, a stark contrast against the starch white of their sheets. The marks were all over the back of his hand, curving around the knuckles, raising over the veins, and climbing like tendrils up his wrist. Dinah had traced them with her fingers, kissed along them and felt the grooves, but still, she had thought nothing of them. Until now, that is. 

She watched with a tilted head as Oliver shifted for what had to be the fifth time in as many minutes. He looked ready to bolt, to launch himself out the cracked window of the limo and throw himself onto the mercy of the pavement. At first it had been mere shifts, the occasional click of tongue or tapping foot. But then it had built and she watched as he seemed to force his upper body still, propping his head up on a hand, even as his legs bounced minutely. Dinah watched as Oliver's eyes roamed before settling on the crease where window met car. Then his hand had begun to move, holding his head in various manners before settling on covering his mouth, looking ponderous. That's when she noticed the way his lips began to move, ever so slowly as teeth inched out, capturing skin before diving under the cover of his lips once again, like frightened children. 

Bite marks. She realized. 

Those marks had been from bites, light gnawings that had been done without the awareness of mind. "Oral fixation," She muttered to Ollie's wide eyes and raised eyebrows. 

"Uh- what?" He was frowning behind the hand, but still biting, at a slower pace. 

"I said, oral fixation. It's Freud. Psychology. Did you know you have one?" 

Ollie's brows furrowed and his hand left his lips, he stared at her blankly as she scooted along the seat, capturing his hand between her own and showing the marks. 

"You bite." 

"Oh, um, okay, yeah, well. No, I don't- maybe...apparently." 

Dinah chuckled at the lost look on his face, the eyes that bore into his hand, staring at it as though it was someone else's. She could tell he was piecing it together, processing the realization that he did something without thinking about it. It wasn't surprising. He never thought out much of anything that he did, it must've been weird to discover something you were unaware of, but not on your own; to have someone point it out. 

Then his cheeks pinked, the tips of his ears turning bright red as a summer tomato. She couldn't help laughing, and then some more as he became even more flustered. 

"It's okay, you know." Dinah smiled and kissed his fingers. "It's a nervous habit." 

"It's embarassing is what it is. It's like...sucking your thumb when you're 40. It's weird. Like I didn't even know, I thought it was from the bow or something." 

"I think it's adorable." 

"You would." Oliver rolled his eyes and glanced out the window, becoming more tense as each building passed. 

"What are you so worried about, it's a board meeting. You'll be fine."

"It's a board meeting with someone else's board. And these are good people, Dinah. Actual, hand-to-God, good people. I don't know how to deal with good people, I just- I'm gonna look like a flake." 

"I'm going to ignore the fact that you just implied I'm bad people." 

"No, you're neither. You're something else, to put up up with me." 

Dinah laughed again, light, and let him lean against her, catching his other hand as it started to ease it's way to his mouth. 

He glanced appreciatively at her.

"Well, you know, the League's good people. Mostly. If you don;t count Booster, and Blue Beetle.”

Ollie raised an eyebrow.

“What?” She questioned, mock defensive. “What they did to J’onn was mean. It just was.”

Oliver tilted his head, obviously trying to ascertain how serious she actually was. 

Very serious, was the answer. At least about the last part. “Moving on, the foundation, they're good people too. You've been around good people. Ollie, hon', you're good people." 

He laughed and it was forced, grating. "If that's what you tell yourself to stay in my bed at night, well, I'm thankful for my sake, but you might want to stop for your own." 

Dinah bit her lip, choosing to let that comment slip. A fight for another day. 

"Just relax Ollie, you'll be fine." 

He sighed and let his head rest on her shoulder, leaning into her touch when her hand reached up to tug fingers lightly through his hair. 

She smiled a little. At the moment with him. At the memory of the way his ears turn color when he's flustered. At the adorable confusion on his face at realizing his habit. At the habit itself. Dinah smiled and let him relax against her, the tension seeming to slip out with every breath as the red marks turned a light pink. "You'll be fine."


End file.
